The Quiet Body

August's Restorive Immersion is open for booking.

Sunday 2nd August 9.30-11.30am
Join Kirsty at the beautiful Hilltop Haven, Otaua for a rejuvenating 2 hour wind down.

Here you can rest, reflect and show yourself some love.

www.thequietbody.co.nz/restorative-immersion

TQBs monthly 2-hour restorative yoga immersion is incoming. These events are designed to support deep rest, nervous system regulation, and gentle release.

Saturday 28th June
9:30am
Hilltop Haven

These sessions are suitable for all levels, including those new to restorative practice. In fact its a great first practice for those who have never stepped foot on a yoga mat before.

The focus will be on slowing down, supported rest, and guided practices to help the body shift out of stress and into restoration.

Spaces are limited 9 to keep the vibe cozy and intimate. .

www.thequietbody.co.nz to book your spot 💫

Just 2 weeks to go for this amazing, nurturing and restorative session by the beautiful Kirsty-May Lillis from The Quiet Body

🌿This workshop fills quickly and has so many supportive attendees who consistently report how relaxed, held and supported they feel, always leaving with quiet nervous systems.

🌿The studio at Hilltop Haven will be warm and welcoming, hot herbal tea available after your session giving you time to ease into your Sunday.

🌿Use the link below to book your spot

https://www.thequietbody.co.nz/event-details/june-restorative-immersion

Applications are open for our new Wednesday evening Waiuku-based TSY class. These are ACC Sensitive Claims–funded, in-person groups for women.

This 8-week course provides a gentle, body-based approach to supporting healing from the impacts of trauma.

No yoga experience is required.
Suitable for all bodies and fitness levels.

Course details
• wednesdays, 5.15–6.15pm
• 29 July- 16 Sept
• In-person group format

If you have an ACC Sensitive Claim, speak with your Lead Service Provider (therapist) about seeking ACC approval to attend.

You can DM me for an info pack or check out the website www.thequietbody.co.nz/trauma-sensitive-yoga

Often the best thing you can do for you nervous system is to slow down.

Restorative yoga activates the parasympathetic nervous system where the body shifts into a state of rest, repair and regeneration . By using props for fully supported, long-held poses, it reduces cortisol, lowers heart rate and blood pressure, increases GABA (a calming neurotransmitter), and restores emotional balance.

Join me for my monthly 2 hour dose of this restorative medicine on Sunday April 19th at Hilltop Haven

Booking link in bio or head to www.thequietbody.co.nz to book your spot.

In the last few weeks I’ve been feeling something heavy inside me. I've felt the allure of avoidance. Wanting to do everything else (there's so much to do!) but sit with myself and all the unpleasant feelings shaking my core.

For years I've been wanting to commit to a daily yoga practice, ans I have succeeded for weeks and months at a time. It's easier when life is going well. There are also days and weeks that go by where i don't step foot on my yoga mat. Ive noticed that these are usually the harder days and weeks of my life.

I know that I have, for most of my life, been a pro at avoiding and suppressing difficult feelings, experiences and emotions cos it felt easier than feeling them, the places where you feel like you've been torn , where the wound is the deepest. But in thr words of Leonard Cohen, “There is a crack in everything,
that’s how the light gets in.”

In and effort to integrate my pain and to choose feeling over avoiding, I've been meeting myself in the dark spaces of my experience, on my yoga mat. When there's nothing else to do an nowhere else to be but with it all. In all it's messy-ness (not fun the virgo in me). Twice ive only got 15 minutes in & had to stop because I just couldn't. But the other days where I've stuck it out I've moved WITH the pain, the confusion, the doubt. and it doesn’t disappear, but i can be with it

I know Im not the first to say this but I think it's such an important message and part of the yoga conversation. Yoga isn't a band-aid. It's not an inherently peaceful experience. When you're really getting present, you're getting present with all of the fractured parts of yourself and your experience. All the things you've been running from catch up with you when you give the space for it to, when it's quiet enough for your hearts voice to be heard.

I guess the moral of the story here is that "The work" isn’t to escape the pain.
It’s to become someone who can sit inside it without leaving, without abandoning the parts of yourself that aren't fun or easy to be with

Ive been offering ACC funded Trauma Sensitive Yoga to women with sensitive claims. Im so grateful that funding for these types of embodied therapies exist. It creates access to care that many wouldn’t otherwise have.

But this sensitive-claim-funded care only reaches a small portion of people living with trauma and access is based on specific criteria and disclosure of particular experiences, not necessarily the overall impact trauma has had on a person’s body, nervous system, and daily life.

This means there are many people navigating C-PTSD, PTSD, and chronic overwhelm who don’t qualify, and are left to manage it on their own. Theres a gap there that im really I’m interested in.

I’m exploring the possibility of small-group Trauma Sensitive Yoga online and in-person that don’t rely on ACC funding. And because, realistically, the people who need this work most are often the least able to pay for it I'll be looking for other ways to fund this work.

To do this well, I’m seeking two things:

• People who would want to attend
• People who feel called to support this work financially

If you’d be interested in attending, you can register your interest through my website www.thequietbody.co.nz/trauma-sensitive-yoga

If you’re in a position to contribute, fund access, or collaborate, your invited to reach out to me or head to my ko-fi page https://ko-fi.com/thequietbody

It's important to me that this kind of work (an empirically validated clinical intervention for complex trauma or chronic, treatment-resistant post-traumatic stress disorder) isnt just limited to those who meet a narrow set of criteria.

Spaces are now open for Term 2 of our ACC-funded Trauma Sensitive Yoga group in Pukekohe.

This is a gentle, body-based space for women wanting to reconnect with their bodies after the impacts of of trauma

These classes are centered around choice, awareness, and moving at your own pace.

No yoga experience is needed.

If you’re currently working with an ACC therapist, you can speak with them about joining. They’ll guide the approval process and next steps.

More info available on TQB website.
Youre welcome to reach out with any questions.

This year I’ve decided to make my 2-hour Restorative Immersion a monthly offering.

It’s a longer, slower space to properly unwind. We take time to settle the nervous system, move gently into supported restorative postures, and allow the body to reset.

My April Restorative Immersion is now open for bookings:

www.thequietbody.co.nz/event-details/april-restorative-immersion

A couple of other offerings happening locally as well:

• Community Yoga every Wednesday evening at Grahams Beach Hall, Awhitu.
• I also have 4 spaces remaining for next term’s ACC-funded Trauma Sensitive Yoga course.

You’re welcome to come once, or make the monthly immersion part of your routine of rest.